Artkansas 

To quote Douglas Adams...



I'd check it out and see what they have to say. They might have some good ideas on where to get some cognitive behavior training.

JohnDThompson 

Ativan (lorazapam) is an anti-anxiety medication in the same class as Valium, and with similar side effects and risks. It is indicated for acute anxiety, has a relatively rapid onset and short half-life.

Zoloft is an SSRI antidepressant in the same class as Paxil, Prozac, Lexapro, etc. It can take several weeks to become effective and like other SSRIs should not be stopped abruptly as this can induce "seratonin syndrome."

Bikey Mikey

I have one friend who uses Celexa and another who uses Wellbutrin(that one has OCD issues though).

fietsbob

First Capitalist Plutocracy screws the Lumpen Proletariat,
then they market drugs to them
to better tolerate their created situation.

Tony N.

Thanks everyone. There must be a lot of interest in this topic (PA) because just today there have been over 500 views (2 post). Sure would love to hear from some of you who have lived thru this and what your did and or doing.

nuttygrandma

That maynot be a bad thing. Social workers can specialize in counseling and then they branch out. It was social worker friend who actually pulled me out of my last panic attack when I wasn't sure I was gonna be able to do it.

Sculptor7

Suffered from panic attacks for a number of years when in my 50s and 60s. A lot of therapy and some bio feedback probably helped as well as small regular doses of Imipramine which I still take. Think it is 25 mg a day. Mental stress on the job as well as left-over issues from childhood contributed to my problems.
Having suffered from it I can sympathize genuinely. Like someone about to feel seasick all the good advice in the world does not seem to help when an attack seems imminent. Now at 77 it seems like a distant unreal dream that I ever could have suffered so. Two bits of advice, apart from medication, are
(and perhaps this is cognitive behavior) to realize that you are in control of the situation. If you doubt that is so just try doing a few deep knee bends and stand up quickly. The dizziness, the sense of vertigo, just like the attack, is there. You caused it! That fact always comforted me. Also, the idea of not fighting it; just letting it come on which I know sounds illogical but at least for me it seemed to help to de-fuse the stress. Apart from these two things, rest, exercise, good diet and enthusiasm for life all help.
I can't remember whether it was Eleanor Roosevelt or Anais Nin (how's that for contrasts?) who said that one's life expands or contracts depending on how courageously we move forward.

DnvrFox

Tell us more, please.

Tx

nuttygrandma

Just remember, everybody is different and may display different symptoms. For me, it starts with my breathing. I begin to feel I'm suffocating and it will progess to my heart rate picking up to an extremely high rate and I will break out in a sweat. All this can happen within a minute or two, very sudden. I've been taught to focus on something and try to slow my breathing (that's pretty much what I focus on too, my breathing). Generally can pull myself out of it within 1-3 minutes. If I feel as if I'm not gaining control, I will walk away from the situation for a few minutes. Most of my panic attacks have occurred while shopping (a big crime against females and this was a big issue that was worked on in therapy). There was a time when my shopping would last about 15 minutes and then I would be standing outside, no coat in cold weather, just trying to breath. Today, I can just about shop until I drop. I guess that a different spin on "retail theray". Then there was driving and still, if I get into a driving situation that I feel is endangering life and/or limb(including my vehicle), has the potential to triggering an attack. I just pull over until my breathing is back in control. Most of the time, it will involve driving mountainous roads with bad driving conditions or stupid people. On a rare occaision, a panic attack will occur for absolutey no reason but that hasn't happened in over 15 years. Again, I focused on breathing.

Now, the PSTD is another story. I no longer have the nightmares but there are times the nightsweats come. When that happens, I've learned to just back off and take a look at what part of my life I'm trying to control that I really have no control over. For me, that saying, "Don't sweat the small stuff and it's all small", really applies to my life.

For me, my time dealing with mental health issues, really changed my life. The tools I was given thru some very serious counseling really paid off. I was able to work thru my late husband's death without self-destructing. No meds (well, my doctor did try antidepresants but never found one that didn't have negative side effects which was consistant with what they found years before when I placed myself in psych care) and no therapy. Only 1 panic attack and that was around the first holiday without him. I just used support groups for widows/ers that were in my same age group and could related.

DnvrFox

A few episodes from my (and partly me) wife's life.

1. Abuse as a child (not sexual) but seeing her mother beaten on a regular basis and being unable to do ahnthing about it. One time she hit her dad on the head with a table lamp. Her brother left at 16 to get away and lied and joined the marines. It created disharmony in the entire sibling group - very common. My wife is the only sibling who was smart enough to seek counseling to understand that part of her life.

2. A disastrous first marriage to a cheater and abuser. She had the courage to pack up and leave, not knowing what was in store for her, and later a divorce.

3. Second son born with profound developmental disabilities, nearly died five times, fought many, many battles to avoid institutionalization and get services. We and he had to wait until he was 31 before he got a proper out-of-home placement. In the meantime, we NEVER got a night away or time alone.

4. First son, at age 21, fell in an athletic event and became paralyzed permanently from the shoulders down. Fighting for services and providing supports until he finished college and Stanford Law School. He is married to a Yale Law School graduate, has received numerous awards, and they have a thriving multi-state law practice

5. Second son fell out of bed at his Host Home and broke his back. Months and months of therapy to even begin to walk again. Caused by severe osteoporosis.

6. 7 years ago attacked by Shingles, leaving her with constant pain from post-herpetic-neuralgia. Visualize someone having a voodoo doll and every single afternoon sticking a needle in the voodoo doll into her rib cage. Every single day. Doctor after doctor, every treatment lnown to mankind that we have been able to find.

If you haven't gotten your Shingles vaccine yet, . . . .

7. 3 years ago, 2nd son fell. The ER failed to diagnose a broken femur, and he was in pain for 6 months. Finally a physiatrist ordered a bone scan. We has to get a special surgeon to repair the damage (others said they would not touch it). We stayed with him 17 days in the hospital, and he has started walking just a bit.

Along the way, she was prescribed oral prednisone, which put her into what is medically called "prednisone - or steroid - psychosis") and it took thousands of dollars and many psychological and psychiatric visits to get that straightened out. (It does the same things with me)

Yes, she at times has panic attacks and a lot of anxiety, and takes meds and does other things to help.

Along the way, we also started and ran for 7 years an intensive home-based therapy program for 2nd son, using over 350 volunteers which we recruited in s different locations, at the same time I was completing my ddoctorate.

You simply can NOT compare one person's situation with another and make broad generizations about treatment and meds/no meds, etc.!

A question from my wife.

What do you check or how do you respond to the question on medical forms, "Have you ever had mental illness?"

My wife leaves it blank or writes in "treating for PTSD/anxiety"

Banded Krait

Retrogrouch is refering to EFT, or Emotional Freedom Techniques. Please see the Wikipedia article at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion...dom_Techniques.

I have no direct experience with EFT. However, several years ago, out of sheer intellectual curiosity, I took a course to learn how to be a hypnotist. It just so happened that my instructor for this course also practiced EFT. My takeaway on EFT is just what the Wikipedia article states: it is one of these "alternative" medicine diciplines (like accupuncture) which seem to work for some people and which conventional medicine can't explain. Its success may be due to the placebo effect, but the people whom it helps really don't care why it works, just that it does.

TomD77

I've had one, maybe two panic attacks in my life and none in the past 25 years. A period in my life with long term intensive work related stress resulted in a prescription for some anti-depressant drug (don't remember). A significant portion of my job required deep uninterrupted concentration but the antidepressant made me stupid, so that didn't work at all.

akohekohe

Approaches VooDoo is almost an understatement. This is pseudoscience quackery, pure and simple. I know, it worked for you ... if every cure out there that had anecdotal evidence supporting it was actually effective, disease would have been banished from the face of the earth a long time ago. Anyway, anyone interested in the truth about this therapy should read https://www.csicop.org/si/show/can_we...ught_field_th/

Farmer Dave

I self medicate if you know what I mean... It's not for everyone, but it works for me.

RoadTire 

And everything else mileslong mentioned. It's all part of the path to moderating yourself thru a panic episode. Also a good counselor is a coach, not a shoulder to lean on. (though that helps in the short term :-) )

Tony N.

Some things just can't be explained. If it works, it works. I remember my mom had real bad nose bleeds and had several surgery's to correct with no cure. While visiting my Grandfather while on vacation, she had a bad nose bleed. He put his hand over her nose and whispered something in her ear that she said was so low/soft she could not hear. Her nose immediatly stopped and never bled again for the rest of her life. Probably 40 years. Another example of unexplainable phenomonon: my female cousin had warts all over her arms, hands, legs that were growing in number and size. Doc's removed some of them and they would just come back, often more aggressively. An old man, friend of the family came by the house one summer day, took out an ordinary ink pen and put a mark on each wart like he was counting them. We were about 10 or so that summer. We did not notice when but all the warts gradually went away.

Tony N.

Thanks everyone for your continued support. The trigger this time for me is/was financial and people who I thought were my friends stabbing me in the back. Friends who when ask for a yes vote, 3 times told me yes and then when the vote came, folded like a cheap suit and is causing a tremendous financial hardship. Friends I have known professionally for over 35 years. I know I will get thru this but am seeking a more perminent resolve for the PAs. As life goes on, there will be other forms of extreme stress that come my way and I want to be better equiped to handle them.

WPeabody 

I've had anxiety and panic attacks from time to time, they began after my first child was born, and tended to come on with stress.

As a result I had years of therapy, meds did not do much good, they made them much worse!

EFT works great, especially if you are on a crowded airplane and get a bad claustrophobia attack. Also learning the individual pressure points to use on yourself breathing, self-talk, etc.
As well as changing my diet, slowly, and riding my trike... not pushing self too hard, or being too focused on the negative or in putting myself down... those can be triggers for me.

toddtone

So well put Kurt, and your friend is me (not literally). It can be a devastating and humiliating disease. Funny, most of the time these situations are purely biochemical. Tony, in addition to the Xanax as needed, research Inderal and ask your doc if this could be an option for you to help with the anticipatory anxiety. Yes Inderal - the beta blocker. It is a PROVEN drug therapy to minimize/eliminate the physical symptoms associated with anxiety - especially socail anxiety disorder and related panic attacks. Often the physical symptoms (rapid heartbeat, sweating, pulse pounding, etc) is all it takes to ramp up the 'mental' anxiety to uncotrollable levels resulting in panic. Again, I know this not anectdotally but from many years of experience I wish I could have avoided.

As always consult with your doctor and/or get another doctor's opinion. I am not a doctor, for sure.

Your are not alone friend. I am with you as are many millions of others suffering from all kinds of anxiety disorders of many varieties, and it is NOTHING to be ashamed of. While some are brought on by trauma, others truly are 100% biochemical. It is an illness just like any other illness and it can be treated effectively and you can resume your normal life.

Xanax and Inderal are my friends - just like BP meds are the friends of those with BP problems. Truly. Good luck and don't give up. There are LOTS of potential solutions out there...if the first or second or third one don't work, KEEP TRYING.

Retro Grouch 

I'm basically a mechanic. I'm not even comfortable with electronics. I'd definitely be more comfortable with a chemical cure rather than a spiritual solution. On the other hand, I'm big on the idea of "First, do no harm." EFT has no downside that I can see. Zero. I don't think that's true of chemical cures.

JohnnyCyclist

For CBT, I recommend the non-profit Abraham Low Self Help Systems meetings (see www.lowselfhelpsystems.org). Face-to-face meetings exist worldwide, and telephone meetings exist for those unable to attend face-to-face.

I'm not going to name any drugs.

It's generally agreed that a combination of drugs + CBT is better than either one alone.